Wazkelly's EX-5

[stan]

great looking bass, it sounds great Waz

[Andy40]

Great video angle Waz....much better..

challenge try to watch the video without singin' "Money!"

Thanks for putting it up mate can't wait to hear the new pups

[wazkelly]

Cheers ThreeBbass, Stan & Andy.

Spent most of the day on this beast where a large part was trying to figure out which coloured wire did what as they came with no instructions or wiring diagrams. Internet searches found nothing other than on Tonerider they listed a bunch of manufacturers and which colours they all used. Hmmm, that helped a little bit but the multi meter gave me a few more clues to narrow down the options.

Here are some progress shots including the new parts required to do the coil splitting. Also thought I should do a proper shielding job in the cavity as not so sure the shielding paint was doing a good enough job and last shot is the humbucker wiring list from the Tonerider site.

[wazkelly]

About 4.30pm this afternoon did first sound check and realised I must have swapped things around on the neck PUP as when both were on in middle switch position things sounded more in parallel than series. Nailed the Bridge PUP with the coil split so went back in and de-soldered and resoldered the neck same as the bridge.

2nd sound check was around 5.30pm and man is this thing louder now! The minister for home affairs was blowing up a bit from all the noise so I had to revert to headphones off the amp to fully check things out.

The Benson's have a much greater tonal range, predominately lower mids, and the coil splits gave a Fenderish sound in each position. Will have to do demo video on another day when the missus is out of the house as these things are seriously loud.

[Dedman]

Sounds like you've nailed it Waz!

[wazkelly]

Thanks Deddy.

[UpperCaseH]

Amazing colour and finish!

The original pups sounded OK to me, so I can't wait to hear the new ones.

[wazkelly]

Thanks H, once I had lowered the action and reset intonation they did sound much better but too late as the Benson's have been on order for a couple of months and do sound better, as you would hope so after spending around AUD $280 for the pair plus another $50 odd for new electronics.

[Andy40]

Totally worth it

[wazkelly]

EX-5 demo after installing John Benson Custom Handwired Soapbar Humbuckers
Hi Andy, definitely agree as the sound quality and combinations through coil splitting has produced the sounds of 2 Bass Guitars in one. Very happy indeed and will post up how to coil split the stock Chinese Humbuckers under a separate thread.